Today, as part of her nationwide listening tour, Secretary Penny Pritzker
toured Universal Studios Orlando with Bill Davis, President & COO, Universal Orlando and John McReynolds, SVP External Affairs,
Universal Parks and Resorts and held a roundtable with Presidents and CEOs of
local travel and tourism companies. Orlando is home to a vibrant travel and
tourism industry that doesn’t contribute just to the state of Florida’s
economy, but to the nation’s economy as a whole. In fact, international travel
is the country’s largest service export with the travel
and tourism industry accounting for nearly $1.4 trillion to the U.S. GDP
and providing more than 7.5 million jobs for American workers, according to the
Department of Commerce.

According to the Orlando
Tourism Bureau, in 2011, Orlando benefited from $31.7 billion in visitor
spending. Orlando was the fifth most visited U.S. city in 2011 with 2.8 million
international visitors and Florida ranked third among states in 2011 with 5.7
million international visitors.

During the roundtable, Secretary Pritzker not only discussed the value of
the travel and tourism industry to the overall American economy, but also the
key role the Commerce Department plays in supporting and promoting the United
States as the premier destination for international travelers. In fact, the
Department’s NOAA manages the nation’s
marine sanctuaries – a great destination for marine life lovers and history
buffs.

Last year, the President
visited Disney World to kick off the National
Travel and Tourism Strategy. There the President issued his goal of
attracting 100 million visitors and $250 billion annually by 2021. So far, the
results are promising. In 2012, 67 million visitors came to the U.S. and spent
a record of more than $165 billion – a 9% increase over 2011.This reflected strong growth in visitors from
Asia and South America. For the first half of this year, the Commerce
Department just announced
that visitors are up 7% compared to the same period last year.

Some of that success is due to the efforts by the federal government to streamline the international
visa process and promote the United
States as the premier destination for visitors. As the U.S. economy
continues to rebound, the travel and tourism industry will be a vital part of
that recovery.As Secretary Pritzker
continues to travel across the country with the message that America is, “open
for business,” part of her messages is to welcome tourists to all this country
has to offer.